2002-06-13

Center for Public History, University of Houston; University of Houston Libraries, University of Houston

This is an oral history interview with Russell Robin conducted as part of the Houston History Project. Russell Robin was born in 1931 in Breaux Bridge. At 17 he got a job on a dredging crew with McWilliams Company and five years later served in the Korean War for 2 years. He was discharged in 1954, came back home, got married, and resumed his work dredging. Less than half a year later, he got a job as a deckhand with Phillips Petroleum Company on a drilling rig off of Eugene Island (35 miles offshore) where he worked until he was laid off. In 1961, he went to work for Tidewater and over the course of a year was promoted from deckhand to engineer, from engineer to captain. He left Tidewater in 1971 to go to work for McDermott as a boat captain, he retired from McDermott in 1990. He also discusses unionization, the cultural impacts of the oil industry, and how he earned his pilot's license. Interviewer: David DiTucci, University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

interviews

Energy development; Petroleum industry and trade; Robin, Russell

Lafayette, Louisiana

Oral Histories from the Houston History Project

University of Houston Libraries Special Collections

English

Collection
University of Houston Libraries Special Collections
Houston History Archives
Oral Histories from the Houston History Project

Preservation Location: ark:/84475/pm0784zh25b